Some people in Pennsylvania who are getting a divorce might experience stalking from an ex. When the Department of Justice did a study in 2012 of stalking, it found that around 1.5 percent of adults had experienced it. However, 3.3 percent of people who had been divorced or separated had also been stalked.
One woman’s ex-husband always seemed to know where she was when she went out of town. Initially, she thought he might have hired a private investigator, but she saw no signs of one. When she took her car to be serviced, she asked the mechanic to check it for GPS trackers, and one was found. However, when the woman reported it to police, they said there was nothing they could do because her husband was still an owner of the car. The battery usage showed that it had been installed in just the last few weeks even though the split happened almost a year ago. The woman also believed that tracking software had been installed on her phone, but when she took it into a store, the staff replaced the phone for her. Therefore, she had no evidence.
Attorneys say this type of stalking puts them in a difficult position. While they are bound to support their clients as much as possible, they could be held liable if they use evidence gathered illegally.
There are several other ways in which a divorce may turn contentious. For example, one spouse might try to hide assets from the other. If children are involved and there has been domestic abuse or one person has issues with substance abuse, the other parent might be concerned that the child is not safe with that parent. People may want to raise these and similar issues with an attorney to protect themselves and their children during property division and child custody negotiations.